Investing in Your YouTube Channel

It’s always fun when your YouTube channel makes its first dollar, because you know that you are on the right track. Taking that first dollar and re-investing it into your YouTube channel? Now that is the true sign of smart channel owner.

If you’re making money, any amount of money, from your YouTube channel, you should know how to reinvest that money. Granted, making some money and spending it on fun stuff is pretty awesome, but if you really want your channel to keep growing, you need to reinvest what you make.

We here at TGN have a few recommendations for our beloved TGN Partners on how to reinvest that hard earned cash, so let’s get started.

Unlock Those Computer Upgrades

The very first thing a YouTube channel owner needs is good recording gear. If you are not recording in 1080p, or at least 720p, and your mic sounds crappy, you’re at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to watchable content. No one wants to watch grainy video with terrible audio, so if you find yourself lacking quality in your recordings, you should look into upgrades for your recording machine. As each machine is different we can’t really give specific suggestions for gear, but be sure to read online reviews extensively and ask fellow YouTubers opinions on all possible purchases.

“No one wants to watch grainy video with terrible audio,

so if you find yourself lacking quality in your recordings,

you should look into upgrades for your recording machine.”

Some YouTubers have two computers, one for games and one for recording/streaming. This kind of set-up helps immensely if you are recording a CPU intense game in high quality – one machine focuses on the game, and one machine focuses on the recording/stream so there’s no stuttering due to lack of resources. If this is not out of your budget, we highly recommend building your own computers to suit your specific needs. It is not that hard to build your own computer, and it is far more cost effective in the long run to purchase the parts separately and then build the machine.

However, not everyone can build a computer so if that is not your forte, or you don’t have any particular friends you can bribe with free meals and beer to build it, we recommend buying a completed machine as an upgrade. It’s just easier that way.

…or just call these kittens!

Clarity in both your video and audio are key to success on YouTube, so any investments made to video quality will have an immediate return. This is one of the best things you can do for your channel with money you’ve earned.

“One art, please”

You know all those cool graphics that lots of YouTubers have, but you have no artistic talent outside of MS Paint, so you can never hope to make such cool stuff? Just pay someone else to do it! Use donations and income earned from your channel to commission an digital artist to make you a banner, a thumbnail, and some channel graphics. The old tattoo adage applies here in the sense that a good tattoo isn’t cheap, and a cheap tattoo isn’t good, so if you want good graphics, you’re gonna have to pay a good artist. Don’t cheap out.

An alternative to this is investing in yourself along with your channel. If you are willing to learn, there are plenty of paid courses to teach Photoshop, or other graphics mediums, that you can take. A word of caution, though, that this is really only a good route for people who want to really learn this. Going to a class and only wanting to learn one thing is silly and a waste of money. If you don’t want to do the legwork, pay someone else who already has.

“…a good tattoo isn’t cheap, and a cheap tattoo isn’t good,

so if you want good graphics,

you’re gonna have to pay a good artist.”

A unique and custom graphic set for your channel will set you leagues ahead of everyone who is using stock images pulled from Google searches.

Loot Acquired: New Games

This is one of the more fun ways to spend that hard earned cash. The key to making this an investment, though, is to be sure that the game you purchase is going to be used for your channel. Study trends and watch for upcoming games that you want to create content for, as well as enjoy playing. Capitalizing on a game and creating tons of content for it when it just comes out (and when people are hungry for the content) is a great way to build your channel, and thus a great investment.

Purchasing GTA V two years after the game has launched is not a wise investment, as there are many channels with GTA V content already on them, and it would take quite a bit of work to break into that scene. Pre-ordering Fallout 4 is a wise investment, as it is a huge upcoming game that is trending like crazy after E3. Now, obviously, these are generalizations and not for every YouTubers‘ personal channel, but we hope you understand the sentiment.

Seriously, this game is gonna just print money.

A new game can be an excellent investment and bump viewer numbers, but older games with a more saturated content-base will be less valuable as an investment.

Giveaways for Days

A quick and easy investment is to give back to your fans through a giveaway! Not only will you garner favor with your community, you can also bring in others from outside your community during the giveaway. This is a great way to build your numbers and reward those who watch and subscribe to your content. Keep your giveaways specific to your channel, and you should see some substantial growth if you run them.

The drawbacks are that the numbers you bring in during a giveaway may not stick around, and sometimes, but not often, your community will be angry if an “outsider” wins. If your community is like this, just make sure to do a giveaway that make them feel special.

“The drawbacks are that

the numbers you bring in

during a giveaway may not stick around…”

Giveaways are a great investment if you want a quick boost in numbers, but the inflation is artificial unless you can pull in more fans with your content.

Time is money, friends.

Okay, so, this may seem like a weird, abstract way to spend your money, but let us just explain. Many YouTubers run their channel for a living, and that’s all they do. YouTube is their job. And that’s wonderful.

There are also other channel owners who have full-time jobs while trying to run their YouTube channel, and this section is for you. With the money you make from your channel, you can afford to take a day or two off and work on your channel. So, you can “buy” yourself some time off from work (especially if you happen to work an hourly wage job) and get stuff done on your channel. I know it seems like a stretch, but for those of you who have too much to do and not enough time to do it in, this can be an invaluable thing to be able to “purchase”.

Haha! Get it? Buying Time? *groans*

Re-investing in your channel is one of the best things you can do for growth. It shows that you care about the success of the channel, and not just about the money you are making off of it. Continuous investment in a channel will practically guarantee that it will grow, and that’s the best news for YouTube channel owners.